Consumer Alert! If You Shopped For Your Electric, Natural Gas Supplier In 2024, You Paid $350 Million Too Much For Energy

Residential electric and natural gas customers who shop for their energy suppliers should not assume they are getting the cheapest rates, especially when their contracts end and suppliers want you to renew at new rates.

The Energy Association of Pennsylvania, who represents electric and natural gas utilities, told a Senate Committee in June that residential customers who shopped for their energy paid approximately $350 million above what they would have paid for default service from their local utility in 2024 alone.

"This outcome was driven in part by aggressive, misleading, and predatory marketing practices (i.e., bait-and-switch introductory rates), confusing contract terms, and targeting vulnerable customers including seniors and low-income households."

"This is not a small consumer protection issue. It is $350 million that left Pennsylvania households, bypassed investment in Pennsylvania infrastructure, and produced no benefit for the customers who paid it."

“EAP strongly supports legislative action to address this problem. 

“The House passed House Bill 2131 (Boyd-D-Delaware), which was voted favorably out of committee last month as an important step in advancing consumer protection for retail customers. 

“We view Senate Bill 312 (Kane-D-Chester) as a constructive companion effort. We urge this Committee to press for the strongest possible consumer protections and clearly assign switching responsibility to the suppliers who have the relevant customer information, as this legislation moves forward in the Senate, including:

-- Affirmative consent requirements that are clear, verifiable, and enforceable before a customer can be switched to a competitive supplier.

-- Comparative pricing disclosure that requires competitive suppliers to clearly display their price against the utility's Price to Compare before enrollment.

-- Enhanced protections for vulnerable customers, including meaningful restrictions on marketing to customers enrolled in universal service programs.

-- Robust enforcement against misleading or aggressive supplier marketing, with meaningful penalties and non-compliance with switching requirements.

“We are committed to working with this Committee to strengthen Senate Bill 312 and ensure it delivers real, durable savings for Pennsylvania residential customers.”

Click Here for the Energy Association’s testimony.

Elizabeth Marx, executive director of the PA Utility Law Project, and a coalition of consumer advocates as well as Darryl Lawrence, the state’s Consumer Advocate, have pushed for protections that would help customers shopping for electricity and natural gas to make better choices and not over pay.

NewsClips:

-- Spotlight PA: PA Residential Customers Who Shopped For Their Electric, Natural Gas Supplier Paid $350 Million More For Their Energy In 2024 Than They Would Have Under Utility Default Service Due To Lack Of Consumer Protections

-- PA Capital-Star: FirstEnergy, PA Consumer Advocate Want To Fix PA’s Competitive Energy Market; Regulators Say More Study Needed 

Related Articles This Week:

-- EPA Proposes Changes To OOOOb/c Oil & Gas Industry Methane Reduction Rules To Help Reduce Burdens On Oil & Gas Industry; Over 99% Of PA Conventional Well Owners Failed To Comply With DEP's 2022 Methane Rules  [PaEN]  

-- FracTracker Alliance: A.I. Data Center Developers Propose 12.5 GW Of Natural Gas-Fired Power Plants To Feed 12 Data Center Projects In Southwest PA  [PaEN] 

-- Consumer Alert!  If You Shopped For Your Electric, Natural Gas Supplier In 2024, You Paid $350 Million Too Much For Energy  [PaEN]  

NewsClips:

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-- WHYY: President’s Heating Oil Reserve Release Unlikely To Ease Sky-High Prices In Pennsylvania, Experts Say; Heating Oil Price Nearly Doubled Since Last Fall

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-- Bloomberg: European Natural Gas Just Hit Highest Price Since 2022 On Winter Risks

-- Pittsburgh Business Times: Why EQT Wants To Acquire Range Resources: Capture Growing Demand For Data Centers, Exports, Cut Operating Expenses $325 Million

-- Fortune: EQT Becomes Nation’s Leading Natural Gas ‘Juggernaut’ With A $13 Billion Deal As A.I. Data Center, Export Demand Surges

-- Pittsburgh Business Times: EQT Natural Gas Driller To Acquire Range Resources In $50 Billion All Stock Deal 

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[Posted: October 28, 2026]  PA Environment Digest